Publications Details

Failure analysis and surety design of composite patching systems

Hamoush, Sameer

This work presents an experimental evaluation of patch repair of solid laminated composites. The study was focused on destructive and nondestructive tests of full-scale repaired panels under static tension loading conditions. The testing program consisted of ten panels: three pristine, three damaged, three repaired and one repaired with mismatched fiber orientation patch. The evaluated panels were (300 mm x 675 mm) in size and consisted of 6-ply ((-60 /60/0){sub s}) quasi-isotropic laminates. The destructive tests were performed by North Carolina A&T State University and the nondestructive tests were performed by Iowa State University using Pulse-echo C-scan, Air coupled TTU and Auto-Tap. Sandia National Laboratories validated the NDT tests by implementing NDE field methods. Based on the evaluation performed in this study, it appears that the patch repair is an effective means in retrofitting damaged solid composite laminates.